Asked what her primary worry would be should her husband succeed in defeating President Obama on Nov. 6, Mrs. Romney replied, "You know, I think my biggest concern, obviously, would just be for his mental well-being."

"I have all the confidence in the world in his ability, in his decisiveness and his leadership skills, in his understanding of the economy, in his understanding of what's missing right now in the economy - you know, pieces that are missing to get this jumpstarted," she continued. "So for me I think it would just be the emotional part of it."

She doesn't say "But he can handle it." She doesn't even imply it.

She starts with her worry about whether Mitt can withstand the pressures of being president, which have to be tremendous, then adds what things he would be good at—and finishes by reiterating that she worries about his mental/emotional ability to handle the pressure.

How do you NOT say "But he can do it" - unless you actually worry that he can't? I mean, that just seemed like candor. It is difficult to take anything from that answer except that Ann Romney is herself worried that her husband may not be able to take the pressure of being president.

She's his wife. She knows this guy. If she's worried - shouldn't the rest of us be?

Update: To put a finer point on it, look at her own construct: "I have all the confidence in the world" about that other stuff, but...

Ann Romney's biggest concern if her husband becomes president would be his ability to maintain his "mental well-being," she said in an interview Thursday with KTVN in Reno, Nev.

Asked what her primary worry would be should her husband succeed in defeating President Obama on Nov. 6, Mrs. Romney replied, "You know, I think my biggest concern, obviously, would just be for his mental well-being."

"I have all the confidence in the world in his ability, in his decisiveness and his leadership skills, in his understanding of the economy, in his understanding of what's missing right now in the economy - you know, pieces that are missing to get this jumpstarted," she continued. "So for me I think it would just be the emotional part of it."

How...what do...oh holy dogs in Uranus.

Mitt Romney's wife just said she doesn't know if Mitt can mentally/emotionally handle being president.

Hold on: I've gotta stand back and say that again:

Mitt Romney's wife just said she doesn't know if Mitt can mentally/emotionally handle being president.

His wife. The person he's been married to for thirty-plus years, who knows him better than any other human on Earth—someone who has seen him in trying times—says she's not sure Mitt can handle being president. Like being president of the U.S. (nukes!) might make him emotionally unstable.

What is that line up there outside the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, just across the way from the Coliseum, for? Phineas and Ferb on Ice? Extra USC football tickets? No, but it does involve children and the University of Southern California.

See, volunteers from the schools of medicine and dentistry at USC, partnered with the organization Care Harbor, are currently giving free health and dental care to people who come to the L.A. arena. It started yesterday and will continue through Sunday.

Oh, the line-sitters? They aren't waiting to get in to see a doctor or a dentist. No, that only began Thusday. That line is from Monday, when they started handing out wristbands so that nearly 5000 people without insurance could get that lump checked or that cavity filled.

Mitt Romney wants more of this. No, really - Mitt Romney wants more of this. Roll that around the old noggin for while. And then toss this in:

One last thing: the reason people lined up so early? That's obvious. Because the clinic only had so much time and so many volunteers. And people, sick people, hurting people, dying people, were turned away.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

This is what you get. This is the natural culmination of having steadily moved your end of the political spectrum away from facts and towards faith, away from thinking and towards ideology, away from public interest and towards self-interest, away from a pluralistic understanding that those who disagree must nonetheless work together to govern, and towards the idea of winning by any means necessary...and if you can't, making sure the other guys lose.

Back in June I posted photos and video of a friendly grey butcherbird who came to the veranda several times—obviously hoping for a feed. (Which he of course got.)

Is this the same one? Don't know. But as I was working at my desk by the veranda window just now a butcher bird out of the blue landed on the veranda railing, and went through a fantastic variety of butcher bird calls. They have a really broad repertoire of trills and chirps and whistles—he even makes what sounds like a chimpanzee sound at one point.

I love how he cocks his head as he spots me trying to sneak out the screen door before he flies off.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

I actually right now want to punch this smarmy little shit in the face. I'm glad I can't, but still. I want to.

"And so, this is what Mitt and I are talking about when we’re worried about more and more people becoming net dependent upon the government than upon themselves."

This piece of shit apparently believes he occupies some elevated moral position which entitles him to talk down to people who have gone through hard times and need a little help. I am so sick of these horrible bastards. They create and/or support policies that CREATE MORE POOR PEOPLE and then pretend to wonder why so many people need help. Just awful, horrible, broken humans. They don't deserve a single American vote.

Without admitting or denying any wrongdoing, the Company has consented to the entry of an administrative order directing it to cease and desist from committing or causing violations of certain non-fraud provisions of the federal securities laws relating to financial reporting and internal control requirements, now and in the future.

Scientists, bless their brains, have finally tracked the paths of sperm in 3D. It's the first time they've been successful in 3D-mapping the trajectory of sperm and it's revealed a few things about those drippy critters: some sperm swim in corkscrew-like patterns and others are 'hyperactive' and hectic. Your sperm has strokes, dude.

In other words, Romney is arguing that about 47 percent of the country is a “taker class” that pays little or nothing into the federal government but wants to tax the productive classes for free health care, food, housing, etc.

Romney is not alone in this concern. “We’re dismayed at the injustice that nearly half of all Americans don’t even pay any income tax,” Texas Gov. Rick Perry said when he began his presidential campaign. “We’re coming close to a tipping point in America where we might have a net majority of takers versus makers in society,” Rep. Paul Ryan said at the Heritage Foundation. “People who pay nothing can easily forget the idea that there is no such thing as a free lunch,” warned Rep. Michelle Bachmann.
For what it’s worth, this argument isn’t true.

Please go read more. It's a very thorough look at the biggest thing that happened in the news today.

(CBS News) The strategy for getting U.S. forces out of Afghanistan depends on training Afghan soldiers and police to protect the country themselves, but on Monday the U.S. military suspended most joint field operations with Afghan forces because so many Americans are being killed by the men they are training.

Afghan government troops -- our allies -- have turned their guns on NATO forces 36 times this year, killing 51, most of them Americans. That is more attacks than the last two years combined.

Obama - ai yai yai.

And no Obama supporter - and that includes me - gets to say this isn't Obama's. He made this his war with his supremely misguided 2009 surge. This is what we've gotten for it. Just horrible.

J.CHRISTOPHER STEVENS, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, was a skilled and courageous diplomat who repeatedly placed himself at risk in order to support the cause of a democratic Libya. His death, along with those of three other Americans, during anattack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazion Tuesday is a tragedy that should prompt bipartisan support for renewed U.S. aid to Libyans who are struggling to stabilize the country. That it instead provoked a series of crude political attacks on President Obama by GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney is a discredit to his campaign.

That's putting it very mildly.

And Republicans - you have deeply serious problems to attend to. This is from the head of the RNC, Reince Priebus:

This is not the kind of thing you ignore, and "hold your nose" and vote for. This is something so wrong you speak up about it.

I hope Tea Partiers understand that this is a limb of their Frankenstein's monster: this judge was appointed to her seat by one of the Tea Party's most throughlydishonest leaders, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer.

Arizona Department of Public Safety Officer Robb Gary Evans was found guilty of sexual abuse on July 2, 2012 by a jury of his peers. The highway patrolman put his hand up the skirt of a bar patron and fondled her genitals after drinking 8 beers and driving to the bars. Upon sentencing Mr. Evans received no jail time and was not even required to register as a sex offender. He walked out of the courtroom with 2 years probation.Upon sentencing Judge Jacqueline Hatch of the Coconino County Superior Court stated to the victim, "If you wouldn’t have been there that night, none of this would have happened." She advised the victim to be more vigilant, “ You learned a lesson about friendship and a lesson about vulnerability.” This injustice cannot be tolerated, and without collective action of the people, these incidents will only continue.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — A judge who told a woman groped by a state police officer at a Flagstaff bar that she wouldn't have been violated had she not been at the establishment issued an apology Friday for any anguish she caused the victim.

Judge Jacqueline Hatch of Coconino County Superior Court said the comments she made Wednesday during a sentencing hearing were poorly communicated and she failed to uphold her responsibility to ensure that defendants and victims are treated fairly and with respect in the courtroom.

"It was never my intention to make a situation worse for any victim," she said in a statement.

Here again is what she said to the victim - in the courtroom, in front of her assailant:

If you wouldn't have been there that night, none of this would have happened to you.

Impossible to not see intention to hurt someone already terribly hurt.

As the second link smartly says, and ignoring how it must have personally felt to that victim:

"For Hatch to use the occasion to give the victim a lecture on risk avoidance, however well-intentioned, marginalizes the courage it took for the victim of a stigmatized crime like sex abuse to come forward," the newspaper wrote.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

This fish is extremely rare and has never been captured on film before. The Chaunacaops coloratus anglerfish was described in 1899 from a dead specimen, but has never even been filmed alive until now.

The deep-sea fish was filmed by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) using a remote operated vehicle (ROV) 7,500-11,000 feet below the surface of the ocean off the coast of northern California. MBARI captured the 8-inch-long anglerfish and learned much about its behavior and habits, the institute said in a press release.

I'm taking scuba diving lessons for the first time in a couple weeks... I have an underwater video camera already... dot dot dot, man!.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Fiona of the Ford truck with three sheep in the front seat, your headlights are on. Fiona of the Ford truck…ENGLAND
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Angus.
Angus who?
Angus for a sheep or a lamb—I never understood that saying! I don’t want anyone to hang me at all! Especially not for a sheep! Or a lamb! A pig, well, maybe a pig. Or a sheep that looks like a pig.